Spooky

Chapter 19

-Scourge's POV-

The weeks went by pretty quickly and easily for me. After our detention, life continued on in relative normalcy for our little group, though there was a lot of talk about Shadow. Sonic was right—rumors have been going around. To be honest, I'd never paid any attention before this year, but I guess Shadow getting a detention is...about as weird as him hanging out with me. A ton of rumors starting floating around—are we friends? Did he get roped into something bad, just by being my roommate? Are we more than friends? The type of more than friends that's only ever whispered about, that's considered strange, an ill omen when dealing with me?

A lot of people started saying nasty things about us, as I figured they would, since hardly anyone genuinely likes me—aside from Steel and Rouge, I guess—although it was...a bit different this time. For once they weren't trash-talking me, but rather making wild assumptions about Shadow. Or "Spooky." The fun in calling him that quickly wore off for me, and I think "Stripes" is a much better nickname for him. But I digress; in any case, people have started to talk smack about him, namely insinuating that he's been 'manipulated' into doing things by me, in the same manner that I've 'manipulated' girls into dating me in the past. I've done my best to ignore them, since I really just don't want to address the subject. But Shadow, he isn't taking it too terribly well—I've noticed that whatever dude talks shit about either of us usually gets their ass kicked within a week. He works pretty fast, I gotta hand it to him, but he's gotten a lot more detentions; some of the guys are too prideful to tell the teachers—else he'd have gotten expelled by now—but y'know. Some people have no honor. So, now he's served detentions every week for the past month at least. Surprisingly he doesn't attack the girls who talk shit, but when I asked him why he wouldn't, he simply replied, "Rouge told me a guy whaling on a girl has a different connotation than two guys dukin' it out. Something about stupid double standards or whatever...I just let her deal with the girls."

Whatever she does to 'deal with them' works, because by the end of September all the chatter's died down, though I can't help but feel oddly discouraged. As time goes on I'm noticing more and more things about Shadow that I like, but he's still, I dunno—unpredictable? I never figured he'd be the type to get in fights, but he's got a pride that's a force to be reckoned with, and by now everybody knows it. At first, I thought he was angry at me, because for the first few days he was unreasonably grumpy and wouldn't talk to anyone except Rouge. After the first ass-kicking he handed out, though, he started talking again, and vented a bit of his frustrations to me; it's pretty scary to see him angry, especially since for the first month I knew him he was so stoic, so eternally calm, so...like a brick wall, though I'm very glad to know it's at least not entirely my fault.

Another weird thing, though, is that most people who talk shit are promptly 'excommunicated,' so to speak. The Populars—that is to say, all the successful jocks and cheerleaders who're friends with everybody—absolutely refuse to speak to anyone who says homophobic stuff. I think maybe that's a factor in the chatter dying out so fast, but I still feel people's eyes on us when we walk together. I worry that pisses him off, too.

I don't know what to do about the whole situation. I know he isn't angry at me but I can't help feeling like I'm part of the problem...And I don't know how to ask him if he thinks that way too.

It's midnight now, a Saturday night—or I guess at this point, a Sunday morning. It's October, November is about two weeks away, and I can't stop thinking about whether or not the black-and-red hedgehog across the room blames me for what's been happening lately. My eyes stare blankly into the face of Maka Albarn, glaring down at me from the wall with her scythe Soul in her hands. What would she do? I wonder, gaze drifting to the Misfits poster above her. Obviously, she'd try talking it out, but it's midnight and I really doubt Stripes would be up for some conversation. Rolling over, I look to my left, and to my surprise I lock eyes with Shadow's rather tired ruby irises.